1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a force feedback functioning manual input device and an onboard instrument control system having it, and more particularly relates to an input means that is rendered multifunctional and a technique for integration of the input means.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a force feedback functioning manual input device has been known that gives resistant sensation and thrust to a knob corresponding to the operation magnitude and operation direction so that the operation feeling of the knob, which is served as an input means, is rendered realistic for making the knob operation sure.
An example of a manual input device of this type that has been known conventionally is shown in FIG. 10. The manual input device of the present example comprises a rotary knob 101, a detection means 102 for detecting the rotation magnitude and rotation direction of the rotary knob 101, an actuator 103 for loading an external force on the rotary knob 101, a control unit 104 for taking in a detection signal a supplied from the detection means 102 and for generating a control signal c to operate the actuator 103, a D/A converter 105 for D/A converting a control signal c generated from the control unit 104, and a power amplifier 106 for amplifying a control signal c that has been converted to an analog signal by means of the D/A converter 105 to obtain the power for driving the actuator 103. The control unit 104 has a CPU 104a and a memory 104b, and the memory 104b has stored the control signal c corresponding to the detection signal a in the form of a table. The CPU 104a takes in a detection signal a from the detection means 102, reads out a control signal c corresponding to the taken-in detection signal a from the memory 104b, and supplies it to the D/A converter 105.
Thereby, the actuator 103 is driven, the force feedback corresponding to the operation magnitude and operation direction is transmitted to the rotary knob 101. As the result, the manual input device of this example is excellent in the operation feeling of the rotary knob 101, and the rotary knob 101 can be operated consistently.
A manual input device of this type is applied to a by-wire gear shift unit of an automobile and various onboard electric instrument such as an air conditioner, a radio, a television set, a CD player, and a navigation system as the function control system.
In the case of application as gear shift device, the force feedback function provides a click feeling when a shift lever range is changed, and used as a lock means for inhibiting incorrect operation of a shift lever from a specific range to another specific range such as shift from P (parking) range to R (reverse) range and shift from D (drive) range to 2nd (second) range. Furthermore, in the case of application as a function control system of an onboard electric instrument, the force feedback function of a manual input device provides a suitable resistance feeling to a rotary knob 101 to make the fine adjustment of the function easy, or provides a suitable thrust to a rotary knob 101 to make operation of the rotary knob light.
The manual input device provided with the rotary knob 101 is described as an example in the above, however in addition to the abovementioned rotary knob 101, a manual input device provided with a joystick type knob that is swingable in two-dimensional direction and a manual input device provided with a lever-type knob that is turned in a certain plane have been known conventionally.
However, a manual input device having a plurality of coaxial knobs wherein each of the plurality of coaxial knobs is controlled with force feedback individually has not been proposed, and the conventional manual input device has been insufficient in multifunction performance and integration performance.
For example, in the case where an exemplary manual input device shown in FIG. 9 is applied as a function control system for controlling onboard instruments, so many instruments to be controlled are mounted and so many functions to be controlled should be involved. If a system is designed so that the function of all the onboard instruments is controlled with only one rotation knob 101, the operability of the system is poor and the system leads to wrong operation. On the other hand, if a plurality of manual input devices are deployed on an onboard instrument control system in parallel, the manual input devices need a large space and the onboard instrument system is rendered large-sized, and such an onboard instrument control system will be expensive.
The present invention has been accomplished to solve the abovementioned conventional technique, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a small-sized and low-cost manual input device excellent in operability and multifunctionality, and to provide a small-sized and low cost onboard instrument control system provided with a manual input device of this type that is excellent in operability and multifunctionality.